Luxury Bus

Origins Of United States

You know the names of all 50 states…but do you know where any of them come from? Here’s the best information we could find on the origin of each.

• ALABAMA: Possibly from the Creek Indian word alibamo, meaning "we stay here."
• ALASKA: From the Aleutian word alakshak, which means "great lands," or "land that is not an island."
• ARIZONA: Taken either from the pima Indian words ali shonak, meaning "little spring," or from the Aztec word arizuma, meaning "silver-bearing."
• ARKANSAS: The French somehow coined it from the name of the Siouan Quapaw tribe.
• CALIFORNIA: According to one theory, Spanish settlers names it after a utopian society described in a popular 16th-century novel called Serged de Esplandian.
• COLORADO: Means "red" in Spanish. The name was originally applied to the Colorado River, whose waters are reddish with canyon clay.
• CONNECTICUT: Taken from the Mohican word kuenihtekot, which means "long river place."
• DELAWARE: Named after Lord De La Warr, a governor of Virginia. Originally used only to name the Delaware River.
• FLORIDA: Explorer Ponce de Leon named the state Pascua Florida - "flowery Easter"—on Easter Sunday in 1513.
• GEORGIA: Named after King George II of England, who charted the colony in 1732.
• HAWAII: An English adaptation of the native word owhyhee, which means "homeland."
  IDAHO: Possibly taken from the Kiowa Apache word for the Comanche Indians.
• ILLINOIS: The French bastardization of the Algonquin word illini, which means "men."
• INDIANA: Named by English-speaking settlers because the territory was full of Indians.
• IOWA: The Sioux word for "beautiful land," or "one who puts to sleep."
• KANSAS: Taken from the Sioux word for "south wind people," their name for anyone who lived south of Sioux territory.
• KENTUCKY: Possibly derived from the Indian word kan-tuk-kee, meaning "dark and bloody ground." Or kan-tuc-kec, "land of green reeds", or ken-take, meaning "meadowland."
• LOUISIANA: Named after French King Louis XIV.
  MAINE: The Old French word for "province."
• MARYLAND: Named after Queen Henrietta Maria, wife of English King George I.
• MASSACHUSETTS: Named after the Massachusetts Indian tribe. Means "large hill place."
• MICHIGAN: Most likely from the Chippewa word for "great water." micigama.
• MINNESOTA: From the Sioux word for "sky tinted" or "muddy water."
• MISSISSIPPI: Most likely taken from the Chippewa words mici ("great") and zibi ("river").
• MISSOURI: From the Algonquin word for "muddy water."
• MONTANA: Taken from the Latin word for "mountainous."
• NEBRASKA: From the Otos Indian word for "broad water."
• NEVADA: Means "snow-clad" in Spanish.
• NEW HAMPSHIRE: Capt. John Mason, one of the original colonists, named it after his English home county of Hampshire.
• NEW JERSEY: Named after the English Isle of Jersey.
• NEW MEXICO: The Spanish name for the territory north of the Rio Grande.
• NEW YORK: Named after the Duke of York and Albany.
• NORTH AND SOUTH CAROLINA: From the Latin name Carolus; named in honor of King Charles I of England.
• NORTH AND SOUTH DAKOTA: Taken from the Sioux word for "friend," or "ally."
• OHIO: Means "great," "fine," or "good river" in Iriquois.
• OKLAHOMA. The Choctaw word for "red man."
• OREGON: Possibly derived from Ouaricon-sint, the French name for the Wisconsin River.
• PENNSYLVANIA: Named after William Penn, Sr., the father of the colony’s founder, William Penn. Means "Penn’s woods."
• RHODE ISLAND: Named "Roode Eylandt" (Red Island) because of its red clay.
• TENNESSEE: Named after the Cherokee tanasi villages along the banks of the Little Tennessee River.
• TEXAS: Derived from the Caddo Indian word for "friend," or "ally."
• UTAH: Means "upper," or "higher," and was originally the name that Navajos called the Shoshone tribe.
• VERMONT: A combination of the French words vert ("green") and mont ("mountain").
• VIRGINIA AND WEST VIRGINIA: Named after Queen Elizabeth I of England, the "virgin" queen, by Sir Walter Raleigh in 1584.
• WASHINGTON: Named after George Washington.
• WISCONSIN: Taken from the Chippewa word for "grassy place."
• WYOMING: Derived from the Algonquin word for "large prairie place."

Facts About Your Planet

• In 1783 an Icelandic eruption threw up enough dust to temporarily block out the sun over Europe.
• About 20 to 30 volcanoes erupt each year, mostly under the sea.
• A huge underground river runs underneath the Nile, with six times more water than the river above.
• Lake Bosumtwi in Ghana formed in a hollow made by a meteorite.
• Beaver Lake, in Yellowstone Park , USA, was artificially created by beaver damming.
• Off the coast of Florida there is an underwater hotel. Guests have to dive to the entrance.
• Venice in Italy is built on 118 sea islets joined by 400 bridges. It is gradually sinking into the water.
• The Ancient Egyptians worshipped a sky goddess called Nut.
• The world's windiest place is Commonwealth Bay, Antartica.
• In 1934, a gust of wind reached 371 km/h on Mount Washington in New Hampshire, USA.
• American Roy Sullivan has been struck by lighting a record seven times.
• The desert baobab tree can store up to 1000 litres of water in its trunk.
• The oldest living tree is a California bristlecone pine name 'Methuselah' . It is about 4600 years old. The largest tree in the world is a giant sequoia growing in California. It is 84 meters tall and measures 29 meters round the trunk. The fastest growing tree is the eucalyptus. It can grow 10 meters a year.
• The Antartic notothenia fish has a protein in its blood that acts like antifreeze and stops the fish freezing in icy sea.
• The USA uses 29% of the world's petrol and 33% of the world's electricity.
• The industrial complex of Cubatao in Brazil is known as the Valley of Death because its pollution has destroyed the trees and rivers nearby.
• Tibet is the highest country in the world. Its average height above sea level is 4500 meters.
• Some of the oldest mountains in the world are the Highlands in Scotland. They are estimated to be about 400 million years old.
• Fresh water from the River Amazon can be found up to 180 km out to sea.
• The White Sea, in Russia, has the lowest temperature, only -2 degrees centigrade. The Persian Gulf is the warmest sea. In the summer its temperature reaches 35.6 degrees centigrade.
• There is no land at all at the North Pole, only ice on top of sea. The Arctic Ocean has about 12 million sq km of floating ice and has the coldest winter temperature of -34 degrees centigrade.
• The Antarctic ice sheet is 3-4 km thick, covers 13 million sq km and has temperatures as low as -70 degrees centigrade.
• Over 4 million cars in Brazil are now running on gasohol instead of petrol. Gasohol is a fuel made from sugar cane.

Monitor - Merrimac Memorial Bridge

This bridge is half under the water, for ships to pass and then again, it comes out on the other side.

The tunnel is 4,800 feet long from portal to portal, and it was built by the immersed sunken tube method, comprised of 15 prefabricated segments each 300 feet long and with two 2-lane bores, placed by lay-barges and joined together in a trench dredged in the bottom of the harbor, and backfilled over with earth. Four percent (4%) maximum grades are utilized in the tunnel, and a 60 mph design speed. The traffic lanes in the tunnel are 13 feet wide, with 2.5-foot-wide ledges on either side of the roadway, and with 16.5 feet of vertical clearance from the roadway to the ceiling. The current shipping channel above the deepest part of the tunnel, has 800 feet of horizontal width and 45 feet of vertical depth below the average low-tide water level; and the tunnel was designed and built deep enough to allow for a future enlargement of the shipping channel to 1,000 feet of horizontal width and 55 feet of vertical depth below the average low-tide water level.
Interstate 664 is the 20.7-mile-long freeway that connects I-64 in Hampton to I-64/I-264 in Chesapeake, completed in April 1992. I-664 includes the 4.6-mile Monitor-Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel (MMMBT). The MMMBT cost $400 million to build, and it includes a four-lane tunnel that is 4,800 feet long, two man-made portal islands, and 3.2 miles of twin trestle. Northbound on the MMMBT is one of the most spectacular views on any road I know of; Hampton Roads makes a "V" with one branch to your ten o'clock, and the other branch to your two o'clock. You see an enormous expanse of water, left, right, and ahead of you, with the landfall of the Peninsula dead ahead. On the ten o'clock branch, you see the Newport News Marine Terminal and Shipyards, on the two o'clock branch, you see the Norfolk Naval Base. Typically, you will see a couple Nimitz-class aircraft carriers moored in the distance, and many other ships. Another nice feature, is that the MMMBT is toll-free. The name comes from the fact that the duel between the two Civil War ironclads was fought less than a mile from the where the tunnel is today.

Ponatic Solstice Roadster

Bringing the popular concept car to life, GM announced production of the Pontiac Solstice roadster as a 2006 model. The vehicle is expected in dealer showrooms in fall 2005.First shown as a concept at the 2002 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, the Solstice immediately gained a huge following, both inside and outside of General Motors. Designed from the ground up in less than four months, the 2002 Solstice concept car promised thrilling, open-air driving freedom in the spirit of the great roadsters of the past. Built on GM’s new Kappa architecture, the production model remains true to the original Solstice concept, including rear-wheel drive, two-passenger seating and a reverse hinged clamshell hood that opens to reveal a sophisticated double overhead cam variable-valve four-cylinder engine.“True to the thinking behind the original concept, the production Solstice is all about being a ‘back-to-basics’ roadster with gorgeous lines and fun-to-drive characteristics,” said Bob Lutz, GM vice chairman of product development and chairman of GM North America. “The key enabler of Solstice is the new Kappa rear-wheel-drive architecture and component set, which allows us to rapidly and efficiently develop an appealing family of compact and affordable sports cars.”

Most Expensive Pen

Swiss company Caran d'Ache made 'La Modernista Diamonds' a pen that was sold in Harrods, London, for $265,000.Created in memory of architect Antonio Gaudi, the rhodium-coated solid silver pen has an 18-karat gold pen point and is pave-set with 5,072 diamonds and 96 half-cut rubies .

Ford Super Chief

Fun With Name

Instructions: What you do is find out what each letter of your name means. Then connect all the meanings and it describes YOU. (It's TRUE!!) PS: If you have double or triple letters, just count the meaning once.

For Example : "VICTOR"
V You have a very good physique and looks.
I You are always smiling and making others smile.
C You definitely have a partier side in you, don't be shy to show it.

T You have an attitude, a big one.
O You are very open-minded.
R You are a social butterfly.
============ =========

A You can be very quiet when you have something on your mind.
B You are always cautious when it comes to meeting new people.
C You definitely have a partier side in you, don't be shy to show it.
D You have trouble trusting people.
E You are a very exciting person.
F Everyone loves you.
G You have excellent ways of viewing people.
H You are not judgmental.
I You are always smiling and making others smile.
J Jealously
K You like to try new things.
L Love is something you deeply believe in.
M Success comes easily to you.
N You like to work, but you always want a break.
O You are very open-minded.
P You are very friendly and understanding.
Q You are a hypocrite.
R You are a social butterfly.
S You are very broad-minded.
T You have an attitude, a big one.
U You feel like you have to equal up to people's standards.
V You have a very good physique and looks.
W You like your privacy.
X You never let people tell you what to do.
Y You cause a lot of trouble.
Z You're always fighting with someone

So, now what your name stands for ????

World's Smallest 'Adult' Dog

Tips To Write Powerful Emails

1. Make the effort to learn about the etiquette (these days known as "netiquette") involved in writing emails. There are loads of good reference websites and books about the internet which will tell you the basics. I know it might seem a bit precious to attach so much importance to social niceties when the internet is basically very informal. However, whether we like it or not many people do take online etiquette very seriously. So if you're writing emails for business, you should assume that your recipient may well be one of those...

2. Never send and preferably don't even try to write an email if you're angry, upset, drunk, or otherwise not in total control. If you have a heated conversation with someone on the telephone you can sometimes fudge things over. But with emails, once you hit "send" whatever you've written is there, carved in tablets of stone, for as long as the recipient wants to glare at it. The old adage about "counting to ten" before responding couldn't be more true here. Only send angry emails if you can handle, or really don't care about, the recipient's resultant feelings!

3. One thing that you may not think of is that it can be useful to consider carefully the time you send your emails. To begin with it's always a good idea to avoid sending emails that coincide with the Monday morning rush and Friday afternoon lethargy. In addition, I've occasionally found that emails sent to companies over the weekend end up getting lost in cyberspace. And on a rather more subtle level, if your recipients see that you're sending emails on a Sunday morning or late at night, they may feel they can interrupt you for a business talk at the same times. Although you may think it's cool to impress a client that you work all hours, your partner won't when the same client calls you on the phone at midnight.

4. Because almost everyone at some time or another has been infected with a computer virus, people are understandably wary of attachments. I never send attachments to anyone I don't know very well, and equally never open attachments unless they're from people I know well. And then, some contemporary viruses and worms clone themselves on to genuine email names and addresses, so even an email purporting to be from someone you know might just be infected. When in doubt append text to the body of your email message, or contact the recipient beforehand and make sure they're happy to receive it as an attachment.

5. Layout of emails is something few people pay attention to, especially if (like me) their system uses text only. However even with simple text a sensible layout can make the whole thing more readable. Above all, you should avoid writing emails that sprawl all the way across the screen. Those are very hard to read and to be able to see everything properly as text, your reader may have to fiddle about changing fonts. The safest format to use consists of lines no more than 65 characters long. That fits, works everywhere and makes the email much easier on the eye.

6. Your subject line should focus on what's in it for the reader so it grabs their attention. You'll find that the best way to do that is to include some sort of benefit. For example, if you're writing an email about a downwardly-revised project budget, instead of saying "Project X -- revised costs" say "Project X -- costs reduced by XX%"). If there isn't a genuine benefit to use, try to make it interesting and intriguing anyway. Also, avoid the words most hated by spam filters like "free," "subscribe," etc.

7. Online writing has to be kept concise and clear, largely because the screen is a particularly unfriendly reading medium for most people's eyes. If only for that reason the KISS principle (Keep It Short & Simple) is useful. With emails you need to get straight to the point and keep to it. Someone who receives dozens of emails per day doesn't have time to wade through a lot of preamble. By making your point concisely you'll stand the greatest possible chance of avoiding the undignified fate of being deleted.

8. As far as writing style is concerned, here more than with any other medium it's very, very helpful to write as people speak. In addition, it will make your email clearer and more concise if you leave out all but essential adjectives and adverbs. Keep your sentences short, and only ever include one main idea or thought per sentence. Paragraphs shouldn't consist of more than 6 sentences max -- fewer if possible. And if you list more than a couple of items, use bullet points.

9. If you write emails for business, make good use of the signature facility that goes after your name. It's surprising just how many people fail to use that facility properly - yet it's an excellent opportunity for you to put across a few words of promotion. Because the email signature appears at the end, your recipients are not likely to be irritated by it. In fact provided that it contains useful contact information it will be seen as a helpful addition to your message. And even if your email is text only you can still make it look reasonably smart.

Self Confidence

There is something common in all achievers and that is self- confidence. It gives them courage to take greater risks and achieve more than they ever thought possible. Self-confidence extends their reach and makes them do miracles.

Self-confidence is our attitude which gives us a positive and realistic views about ourselves. It helps us to trust our abilities and believe that we can achieve what we dream.

Self-confident people have realistic expectations of themselves and others. Even if some of these expectations are not met they remain positive, accept themselves and look optimistically to conquer greater heights.

They feel good about themselves even when others don't appreciate and acknowledge their efforts. They don't long for the approval of others and are willing to risk and do what others are scared of doing because they believe in their ability to win. Jack Welch says, "Self-confidence gives you courage and extends your reach. It lets you take greater risks and achieve far more than you ever thought possible."

Self-confidence is contagious. Self-confident people instill confidence in others and gain the confidence of others. It is the secret of effective and successful living.

Our self-confidence is expressed in our behaviour, body language, the way we dress, talk, look, walk, what we say and think, the way we act and relate etc. A self-confident person fears nothing, has attained the truth and lives free of error.

The signs of low self-confidence are feeling of guilt, skepticism, self-shame, pride, fear, pretension, laziness, unforgiving attitudes, depression, lack of trust in oneself and others,
pessimism, inferiority complex, procrastination, self-doubt, passivity, submissiveness, isolation and jealousy etc.

Be glad there are ways by which we can build up our self-confidence.

1. Have faith in yourself

Our self-confidence increases when we believe in our abilities to perform and manage things. All of us have innumerable talents and potentials, only we are often not aware of many of them. To believe in our capabilities we first of all must identify what we have. For this we have to do a SWOT analysis and realistically look at ourselves. We will discover that we are people of great
possibilities and potentials. This faith in our abilities will boost our self-confidence. We must dwell more on our strengths and use them to negate and correct our weaknesses.

2. Look at your achievements

We can successfully do so many things. We too are great achievers. But we often brood over our failures and make our lives miserable. Think often of your successes and this will help you to increase your self-confidence. Our fear of failures prevents us from taking up anything new and challenging. Remember that we have so many qualities and abilities and that we too can be successful if we perform with all our energy, mind and heart.

3. Feel good about yourself

No one can make us feel inferior without our permission. To boost our self-confidence first of all we must feel good about ourselves. The secret of all successful and happy living is to love oneself. When I am unhappy with myself I see unhappiness everywhere and I make all those around me unhappy. I must accept myself and feel good about the way I am, the way I look, my colour, my size, my shape and believe that the world can't be same if I am not there. Enjoy yourself once in a while by joining your friends for a night out, enjoying a good meal, going for a movie, playing some games etc. Laugh and forget yourself and enjoy some moments and run away from
your work and stress. Such activities can boost your self- confidence.

4. Fix challenging goals

Goals can do miracles in our lives. Greater the goals greater is our self-confidence. We should have both small goals and big goals. The achievement of small goals will give us enough enthusiasm and self- confidence to run towards bigger and more challenging goals. We must
think positively about our abilities to achieve our goals and reward ourselves when we achieve them.

5. Bring in commitment and passion

Our self-confidence depends on the degree of our commitment to a cause. If we are mediocre and half-hearted the result will also be same. We must commit ourselves to success and become passionate about what we do. Our commitment is expressed in our eagerness and desire to learn and develop new skills, knowledge and talents. When we are more prepared with commitment, knowledge and skills to do a thing we become more confident.

The elephant and the maina were great friends. But the elephant always felt sad that he was not able to fly like his friend maina. So one day he asked maina to teach him how to fly. The maina agreed and led him to a cliff.

Pulling out a feather she said: "hold this feather tight in your mouth and flap your ears and jump down this cliff and you will fly."

The elephant belived her words, held the feather in his mouth and flapped his ears and behold he began to fly.

He flew over the villages, the rivers and cities and returned to his friend very happy and told her " Your feather is very powerful. Can I have this feather because I want use it whenever I want to fly."

The maina said, "its not my feather. It's a hair from your tail. You only need to believe in your ability to fly. Believe in yourself and you will do miracles."

Believe in yourself, have confidence in yourself and you will indeed do miracles.

Race Over Mallu Bridge (FRANCE)

Happened on May 13th, 23Km race, crossing the bridge twice.